You Shouldn’t Use Social Media If…

As social media continues to become more popular among the masses, many marketers have had no option but to adjust their marketing strategy. This massive pool of easy-to-reach prospective clients is simply too great to let pass by. For instance, how many ads have you come across on Facebook alone? Well, your guess is as good as ours. However, some business owners are convinced they shouldn’t use social media.

Many business owners aren’t quite sure that social media marketing can be beneficial to their online sales. And they have some pretty good arguments for that! In this blog post, we provide reasons why some business owners may not want to use social media marketing. We also give food for thought for each one of the reasons presented. The purpose of this post is to help you decide whether social media marketing is a good fit for you and your business.

1. Your Audience Isn’t on Social Media.

According to Forbes, there are 3.2 billion active social media users, which translates to about 42% of the world’s total population. Obviously, this market is too good to ignore. However, this does not mean your business’ audience or target market is on social media. Furthermore, there is a high probability they are not on every social media platform. For example, only 8% of people over the age of 65 use Instagram, but 46% are on Facebook. So, if you are a retirement financial planner, it may be a good idea to be on Facebook, but Instagram will likely be ineffective.

What is clear is that Facebook is by far the most consistent platform, ranging from 48% to 79% of people using it in all age groups. So, if you feel you only have time to focus on one platform, Facebook is likely the best choice for most businesses. If you create video content, using YouTube is also a great idea, as it ranges from 38% to 91% across age groups. When deciding if your business should be on social media, consider where your target audience is. If they are not on social media, then it likely isn’t the best marketing channel for you to use.

2. It’s a Bit Complex

Setting up an effective social media marketing strategy requires a lot of work and effort. First and foremost, you have to study what your business competitors are doing, create engaging social media content, figure out your target audience, and of course, make follow-ups on what’s working and what’s not. All these steps require you to be a tech-savvy individual. However, if you get your social media page up and running, this can turn out to be one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing your products or services. To begin, creating and setting up a social media account is absolutely free on most social networking platforms. Regardless of your budget or size of your business, you have an opportunity to grow your audience without spending any money.

Alternatively, you can hire a marketer to handle your content for you. They will create all the content, develop a strategy and grow your audience on your pages. This is by far the easiest way to do social media marketing, if you don’t want to keep up with it yourself. However, it does come with a cost. The cost of hiring a marketer can vary, so it is recommended to get quotes from different companies.

3. You Don’t Want to Waste Time Online

It’s a known fact that social media takes time. And with that, it can distract some businesses from much needed face-to-face interactions. For people such as sales reps or chiropractors, losing face-time may be undesirable. In business, time is money, so not every business will want to waste time chatting and making new friends on these platforms during business hours. But think of it this way; you can use social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to attract new customers. This is one way to get new clients interested in your brand.

For instance, clients will always require further clarity about a particular product’s availability, specifications, price, shipping, payment, etc. If you respond promptly, then you’re most likely to experience improved sales. The brand awareness you will receive will also help you come to mind when someone needs your service or products to solve one of their problems.

4. There Are Other Alternatives

If you see great success with your other marketing tactics and don’t have an interest in new customers, then social media can be skipped. Many people see great success using email marketing, PPC, SEO or Google My Business for their marketing. This is great news if this is the case for your business. However, if you would like some more customers, you can add social media to your marketing plan. You can share your product on your favorite platform and interested clients will click through to your website for more information. In this case, you have to ensure the content you share on social media is of high quality, to increase website traffic.

5. You’re Afraid of People’s Opinion

On the Internet, people are often unafraid, and sometimes ruthless when it comes to sharing their opinion. This, unfortunately, happens to many businesses. After sharing your product or service on social media, you’ll realize there can be both negative and positive comments. However, backlash on platforms is something that most experienced online marketers have become accustomed to. Customers will complain about different things such as price, quality, quantity, shipping time, online response time, etc. It’s how you learn from these criticisms that will determine the fate of your business.

Don’t let people’s opinions scare you away from social media, or marketing in general. We have a blog post called “How to Handle Negative Online Reviews” that explains how to properly handle online backlash. The truth is, if you treat people with respect, you shouldn’t have a major problem with this.

6. Because You Think it Will Fade Away

Many people resist joining social media because they think it is a fad. While this has been the case with some platforms such as Tumblr and MySpace, others have stuck around. A prediction we have, and that many others agree with, is that these platforms will never go away entirely. They will likely change, but they will never disappear completely. It is a great idea to join these platforms as a marketing tactic, if you feel your audience is there. After all, it’s free to join, and you have nothing to lose if your time is being spent wisely.

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7. You’ll Get Spammed

Spam is defined as unsolicited or irrelevant messages sent in large numbers via the internet. The spammers might be advertising, spreading malware, phishing, giving fraudulent reviews, etc. It doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to know that these activities can portray your image in a bad light to prospective clients.

To manage this menace, there are a few things you can do. You can start by blocking spam accounts as they add no value to your brand at all. You can also report fake reviews, avoid bulk messaging, and of course, cut down the use of hashtags on Instagram to reduce the attention you get from those pesky bots. All said and done; if you can control spamming, you’ll realize just how important social media marketing can be to your brand.

You Shouldn’t Use Social Media If…

At the end of the day, you should stay off social media platforms if your audience is not present, or if you don’t want new customers. However, if you have any of the other concerns mentioned above, consider giving it a try. As long as you feel happy posting and feel as though your time is not being wasted, posting on social media can be positive. Do you have any other reason why you feel we should leave social media marketing altogether? Feel free to share it with us! We would be happy to extend to this blog with additional reasons why someone shouldn’t use social media.

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